SO I'm spening a bit/front speaker advice

[castek]

Well I've always liked my music and was put off changing the stock H/U due to the one piece fascia.

I've bitten the bullet now and ordered the fascia off avo japan, so I should have that soon.

I also layby'd (better than finance) an Alpine IVA-W520EBT touch screen unit. Should pick that up end of this month or early December.

Other things I have at the moment is a pioneer slimline sub in box in the boot powered by a Cadence amp.


Also, what sort of speaker do you guys use and recommend for the front of house? I've always had alpine gear, but wouldnt mind trying something new.

thanks


P.s: link to the HU http://www.alpine.com.au/showItem.php?item_id=186

[teK--]

I was really happy with the Hertz HSK165. Very high sensitivity (93db/1W from memory) and they were very smooth, very strong mid range and tweeters are silk dome so not harsh at all. They were around $350 when I bought my set many years ago I think the price is much higher now about $550.00.

I blew them after about 5 years of hard use, now I have Alpine Type R due to limited budget at the time, and I would say the Hertz were better in terms of midrange response.

[garbo41610]

If you like your music then make sure you do a proper install to get the best out of whatever speakers you go with. That means sound deadening, good baffles secured properly, angling of the baffles to get the imaging right, tweeter positioning (some tweeters play better on axis, some tweeters play better off axis) etc etc etc.

I was really happy with my old combo, Digital Designs mids paired with CDT crossovers and tweeters. I was looking into changing the mids to CDT after reading some reports on them, and after listening to the clarity of their tweeters just run off the standard mac, I knew the mids would be fantastic. I had however had the install done professionally by the guys at FHRX in Sydney. The DD's played really low and the CDT tweeters were, for the money, some of the cleanest sounding tweeters I have heard.

However, the only way we can recommend a speaker is knowing how much you want to spend. It also comes down to what sounds good to your ears. Your best bet is to go to as many places you can, listen to as many speakers as you can and take along some cd's with the types of music you like. Another thing to remember when you are auditioning speakers from a board is that they will sound much different when they are installed into your car.

Entry level speakers would include (and this is borrowed from the fhrx website) Boston S95.3 / DLS426 / Eclipse SE6500 / Focal 690CA / Hertz ECX 690 / Orion CO650 / Polk DB650. Getting more expensive there are Boston S60 / Crescendo Opus 1 / DLS B6A / Eclipse SE6500 / Focal 165V1 / Hertz ESK165 / Hifonics ZXi6.5 / Orion CO625 / Polk DB650. More expensive again Boston SR60 / Crescendo Opus 5 / DLS MS6A / Eclipse 8365 / Focal 165KP / Hertz HSK165 / Morel Ovation 6 / Orion C2.62 / Polk MMC6500 etc etc etc

Jump over to MEA (mobile electronics australia) for some tips. there is a fountain of knowledge there.

[castek]

sound deadening will be done with the speaker upgrade.

I dont want to spend thousands on speakers, probably around $350-400 for the fronts. i have the sub amp which still have two channels free so could use that to power, or invest in a small amp for the fronts to keep the sub control feature on the HU

yeah i try to stay away from that site, my wallet caught fire last time i visited.

[garbo41610]

For $350 - $400 you really can't go past CDT splits... They are fantastic.

[castek]

do the tweeters fit in the place of the factory items? I want to keep as much of a factory look as possible in case i sell the car

[garbo41610]

yes, the top tweeter in the door, not the "super tweeter" behind the mirror.

[castek]

yeh thats a prob, I didnt get the MAC system to start with, so i have the woofers in the door and only the tweeters behind the mirror.

Might sus out fitting them in the door, or finding some door skins

[garbo41610]

fitting the tweeters to the door trims isn't a major job, but you would have to be careful cutting a hole into the trim. even fitting them to the plastic trim behind the mirror shouldn't be too difficult.

in an ideal world the tweeter should be as close to the mid woofer as possible so maybe look at installing them into the kick panels or something???

what i would suggest is temporarily mounting them with some bluetac and moving the tweeters around over time to find the position that suits your ears, and the speakers, best. you may find having the tweeter in the kicks sounds better, or on the dash pointing at the windscreen sounds best.

[tangcla]

Another thing to remember when you are auditioning speakers from a board is that they will sound much different when they are installed into your car.

Quoted for resonance.

[castek]

Yeh i've had quiet a few different installs ranging from mild to pretty big (my gen2 had a nice big alpine system which pushed 140dB with ease)

One thing i've learnt is everything looks and sounds good on the boards, good thing about the place i go to for installs is he can usually pull a speaker out and see what it'll sound like in the car.

[mihai]

yeh thats a prob, I didnt get the MAC system to start with, so i have the woofers in the door and only the tweeters behind the mirror.

Might sus out fitting them in the door, or finding some door skins

Are you sure they are behind the mirrors? Im pretty sure that the tweeters in the non-mac are next to the door handle (at least thats where mine is)? And im pretty sure thats the location Phil was talking about in regards to the CDT tweeters.

The mac have the standard tweeters where the door handle is and then a "super tweeter" mounted behind the mirror.

[castek]

ah yeh I knew what i meant ok

Near the handle is where they are. I would have thought not such great positioning, i've always had mine on the dash facing the windscreen.
Same with the sub, some people have it pointing directly into the cabin, it actually doesnt give you the full effect or SQ doing this.

[garbo41610]

I would have thought not such great positioning,

Like I said mate, it all depends on the speaker, your ears and the car itself.